Rochdale Grooming Gang Leaders potrebbe essere espulso sotto “accordo” con il Pakistan dopo il divieto del Regno Unito a sollevamento di voli diretti

So in theory from the UK’s point of view these things shouldn’t be related. But from the Pakistani Government’s point of view they might.

These two had dual British/Pakistani citizenship, but “renounced” their Pakistani citizenship before the UK Government could strip them of their British citizenship. The Pakistani Government has been using that as a reason to block deportations (a handy reminder that deporting requires the receiving country’s permission – you cannot just “deport” someone, you need somewhere to deport them to).

Separately, in 2021 the UK banned Pakistani airlines from flying to the UK due to safety issues. Some in the Pakistani Government have hinted (or said outright) that lifting this ban might help with the deportation issue.

The UK has now lifted the ban. This is – in theory – done on the advice of independent safety committees, not by the ministers, so in theory the Government had no direct involvement. The EU also did the same thing recently, so it probably isn’t directly related.

Of course, there is no reason why the Pakistani Government would change its position on the deportations…

[Also, because it comes up all the time with these two, this is nothing to do with human rights or international treaties – this was always about direct diplomacy.]